Choosing Authentic Discipleship

Choosing Authentic Discipleship

 In Blog

Everything in our society, it seems, is geared to the here and now. Every whim and desire known to man is available online through the quick use of your credit card or payment app, and is accompanied by the claim (whether real or fabricated) that those desires can be granted sooner than you ever dreamed possible – everything from weight loss to finding your soulmate to becoming a best-selling author overnight. 

But Christian discipleship requires discipline, intentionality, and time… not exactly values topping the charts these days.

In my recent podcast, People Are Not Numbers, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and I reflected from the Torah on the truth that people are not mass ‘numbers’ to be counted, but individual lives each with value and meaning.

With the next generation of our young people, are we (the Church) offering them a worthy alternative to the hollow enticements of this world – or are we lowering our standards, cheapening our message, and trying to compete for their souls as mere ‘numbers’, using the same tactics as those trying to lure them away? 

As a leader in the body of Christ who has been discipled and been discipling for close to forty years, I would like to submit to you three core areas I feel we need to focus on in our quest to disciple the next generation. 

1. Discipling the Next Generation in THE WORD

Our Judaic heritage teaches us the supreme importance of God’s Word. In this culture, the learner sits at the feet of the Rabbi and memorizes the written Word. As the child progresses, public reading of Scripture becomes part of the learning process; then later, it is followed by discussion, reasoning, and working out its application. 

In our own culture, there is an urgent need for the Word of God to be given its proper place in the life of every young person, every disciple who desires to walk in the ways of God. Memorization and the public reading of Scripture should be prioritized by every pastor and youth pastor so that we will have the solid foundation on which to build lives of truth and moral excellence.  

2. Discipling the Next Generation in PRAYER

The farther the Church spirals away from the discipline of sustained, corporate intercession, the farther it grows away from the heart of God. Prayer that is grounded in the Word of God should be the very bedrock of our spiritual lives, as it was for David and the prophets of old. 

Other cultures understand the purpose, power, and unifying force of prayer. The value placed on prayer surpasses the value of all else in, for example, the world of Islam. And here, prayer is not reserved for a certain few. It is, rather, the common denominator of their religious life. How unfortunate that we need look to those who set themselves up as enemies of the cross to learn (if it were possible) what our own loving and personal Savior came to earth to teach us. 

Friends, if we are to see God move through us, we must move ourselves to the place of prayer. We must help those we disciple to internalize the importance of devotional and intercessory prayer and live these out as not just a practice, but a lifestyle. 

3. Discipling the Next Generation in CHARACTER

It has been said that character is who you are when no one’s looking. Character is not what we hope to be or what we think ourselves to be, but what we are. In a society such as ours, in which the instantaneous is lauded, character is naturally marginalized. What we value is what we will teach our children to value. Do we value talent – or the proper stewardship of that talent? Do we value the anointing of the Holy Spirit – or the ability to administer that anointing in holiness and faithfulness? 

We must ask ourselves if we are cultivating in our protégés the kind of diligent hearts and minds that will pursue a life of godliness, or if we are prizing the end result above the process. In our desire to produce anointed, power-filled ministers of the Gospel, are we half-baking our efforts to the end that the exteriors look ‘done’ while the interiors remain raw?  

The fruit of righteousness will not be reaped if it is not sown. Apples do not just appear out of thin air. A seed must be planted and nurtured before a harvest is seen. Are we planting that seed by challenging young people to persevere to true spiritual maturity? Or are we putting our energy and resources into artificially manufacturing what appears to be a ripe, gorgeous, appealing apple, but is in fact inedible? 

The world is hungry. The spiritually-orphaned youth of this generation are starved for something real, something authentic, something that will nourish their souls; and fast-food discipleship is not the answer.

I want to issue a challenge to you today to enter into intentional discipleship with someone in a real way. Jesus didn’t offer anything to His disciples but the truth. Even when they began to forsake Him, claiming His teachings were too hard to bear, He did not compromise the integrity of His message. If we are to fulfill our commission to raise up disciples after Christ, we must be willing to do the same.

Want to learn more? The Bishop and The Rabbi is a dynamic and informative weekly podcast, hosted by Bishop Robert Stearns and featuring different guest Rabbis from the Jewish community. It presents discussions on topics like the content of this article, the Hebrew Scriptures from Jewish and Christian viewpoints, current events in America and the Middle East, and the future of Jewish-Christian cooperation. Tune in now to the latest episodes by clicking here!

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ABOUT US

Eagles’ Wings. and our affiliates (“we,” “us” or “Eagle’s Wings”) is focused on (1) Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, (2)Renewing the importance of spiritual community and (3)fostering understanding across cultural divides, through social media, mailings, email, conferences, speaking engagements and related forms of media and other presentations.

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For the purposes of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or GDPR, Eagles’ Wings, and each of its departments for which you have interacted with for a product or service are the data controller.

INFORMATION COVERED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy covers personal information, including any information we collect, use and share from you, as described further below. This privacy policy applies to all websites of Eagles’ Wings our products and services, and our mobile applications (collectively, the “Services”). This privacy policy does not cover how our Users may use or share data that they collect using our services.

When you engage with us through service or product purchase, your personal information will be collected, used, and shared consistent with the provisions of this privacy policy as well as the following addendums related to particular products and services offered by Eagles’ Wings, which are a part of this privacy policy.

For the purposes of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or GDPR, these are data processors:

INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM YOU

In the course of your use of the Services, we obtain the following information about you as described below. We collect this data for the purposes described in “How We Use Your Information”.

SIGNING UP FOR SERVICES; USER INFORMATION

USE OF SERVICES, WEBSITE VISITS AND SUPPORT

We store this data we collect in a variety of places within our infrastructure, including system log files, back-end databases, and analytics systems.

SOCIAL MEDIA

OTHER SOURCES

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We have a legitimate interest in running a successful and efficient organization and in providing you with Services and useful content, and we use the information we collect, both on its own and combined with any other information we collect about you, for the following purposes:

We also use the information we receive in aggregated and anonymized formats to produce reports on trends and statistics, such as mobile search trends, email open rates by industry, campaign best practices or the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, our websites or evaluated or purchased our products and services.

Payment information that you provide to us, including credit card data, will only be used to facilitate payment for our products and services.

SHARING OF INFORMATION

As further described below, we will only share certain personal information with:

SHARING WITHIN Eagles’ Wings

We share personal information with other members of the organization to allow communication with you on offers of interest.  If you are located in a jurisdiction where such sharing requires your permission, we will only do so with your consent.

SHARING WITH THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS AND VENDORS

When we share personal information with certain third-party vendors, including marketing, data services and advertising partners, that information includes your name, email address and other information enabling partners to:

If you are located in a jurisdiction where such sharing requires your permission, we will only do so with your consent. Please note that if you access our services through a tool that hides your location, such as through a virtual private network, you may not receive our request for permission because we were not able to identify you as being located in a jurisdiction where your permission is required.

AUTHORIZED USERS

All users authorized by you to have access to your account can view personal information stored in the account. A primary account holder can view personal information saved in subaccounts to which they have authorized access. We share information about authorized users only for legitimate purposes consistent with this privacy policy, including servicing your account and marketing products and services to you.

LEGAL PROCESS

Lastly, if legally required to do so, or if we have a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary, we may disclose your personal information to courts of law, law enforcement authorities and other relevant third parties, such as internet service providers, to conduct an investigation, respond to a third party or law enforcement subpoena or court order, bring legal action, prevent harm to others or pursue other relief when you or a third party are or may be:

This disclosure can include transferring your information to the U.S. and other countries outside the European Economic Area. To the extent we are legally permitted to do so, it is our policy to notify you in the event that we are required to provide your personal information to third parties.

SECURITY

The transmission of information via the internet, email or text message is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted through the Services or over email; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will take appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorized use, access or modification. When we collect financial account information, such as credit card numbers, we protect its transmission through the use of encryption such as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

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MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS FROM US

EMAIL

You always have the opportunity to opt out of our marketing communications with you or change your preferences by following a link in the footer of all non-transactional email messages from us or by emailing us at [email protected]. Some communications from us are considered transactional or service communications (for example, important account notifications and billing information), and your account(s) for Eagle’s Wings products and services are provided to you upon the condition that you receive these communications from us. You must cancel your account(s) for Eagle’s Wings products and services, as applicable, if you do not wish to receive any transactional or service communications. To cancel your Eagle’s Wings account(s), please follow the instructions found in the terms of service for the applicable Eagles Wings services. You may still receive marketing communications from us even after you cancel your account unless you also opt-out of our marketing communications, as described above.

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We may contact you by telephone, with your consent where applicable, for marketing purposes (including by automatic dialer and/or prerecorded message). If you do not want to receive marketing calls, please contact [email protected]. You do not need to agree to receive automated marketing phone calls or texts from us to use the Services.

COOKIES

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INFORMATION FROM THIRD PARTIES

To manage the information we receive about you from a social networking site or other third parties (if applicable), you will need to follow the instructions from that party for updating your information and changing your privacy settings, where available. The information we collect is covered by this privacy policy and the information the third party collects is subject to such third party’s privacy practices. Privacy choices you have made on any third party site will not apply to our use of the information we have collected directly through our Services.

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RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We retain your personal information to provide services to you and as otherwise necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We will retain your personal information for no more than seven years following the later of (i) the date on which you terminate your use of the Services or (ii) May 25, 2018, unless we are otherwise required by law or regulation to retain your personal information for longer.

YOUR RIGHTS

Where the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or GDPR, applies, in certain circumstances and subject to data processing agreements, you have rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you. We set out below an outline of those rights and how to exercise those rights. Please note that we will require you to verify your identity before responding to any requests to exercise your rights by providing details only known to the account holder. Please note that for each of the rights below we may have valid legal reasons to refuse your request, in such instances we will let you know if that is the case.

ACCESS

You have the right to know whether we process personal information about you, and if we do, to access data we hold about you and certain information about how we use it and who we share it with.

PORTABILITY

You have the right to receive a subset of the personal information you provide us if we process it on the legal bases of our contract with you or with your consent in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and a right to request that we transfer such personal information to another party. If you wish for us to transfer the personal information to another party, please ensure you detail that party and note that we can only do so where it is technically feasible. We are not responsible for the security of the personal information or its processing once received by the third party.

CORRECTION

You have the right to require us to correct any personal information held about you that is inaccurate and have incomplete data completed. Where you request correction, please explain in detail why you believe the personal information we hold about you to be inaccurate or incomplete so that we can assess whether a correction is required. Please note that while we assess whether the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you may exercise your right to restrict our processing of the applicable data as described below.

ERASURE

You may request that we erase the personal information we hold about you in the following circumstances:

Please provide as much detail as possible on your reasons for the request to assist us in determining whether you have a valid basis for erasure.

RESTRICTION OF PROCESSING TO STORAGE ONLY

You have a right to require us to stop processing the personal information we hold about you other than for storage purposes in the following circumstances:

You have objected to us processing personal information we hold about you on the basis of our legitimate interest and you wish us to stop processing the personal information while we determine whether there is an overriding interest in us retaining such personal information.

OBJECTION

You have the right to object to our processing of data about you and we will consider your request. Please provide us with detail as to your reasoning so that we can assess whether there is a compelling overriding interest in us continuing to process such data or we need to process it in relation to legal claims.

You also have the right, at any time, to object to our processing of data about you in order to send you marketing, including where we build profiles for such purposes and we will stop processing the data for that purpose.

WITHDRAWAL OF CONSENT

Where you have provided your consent to us processing your personal data, you can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing [email protected].

THIRD PARTY LINKS & INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE BY OUR USERS

Some of our Services provide links to other websites. Because we do not control the information policies or practices of these third-party sites, you should review their privacy policies to learn about how they collect and use personal information.

You may also log in to some of our Services using sign-in services such as, but not limited to, Facebook Connect or an Open ID provider. These services will authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share certain personal information with us, such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. For example, if you take advantage of certain of our social media features, such as the Facebook Like button, and widgets, such as the “Share This” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site, the applicable social networking sites may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our websites, and may set a cookie to enable it to function properly.

DATA TRANSFER

In order for us to provide the Services to you, your personal information will be transferred to, and stored at/processed in the United States.

You can contact the Eagles’ Wings [email protected] for further information

COMPLAINTS

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how we process your personal information, please contact our office and we will try to deal with your request.

Eagles’ Wings
PO Box 450
Clarence, New York 14031

Telephone: (716) – 759 –1058
Fax: (716) 759– 01731

[email protected]

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we decide to change this privacy policy in any material way, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on www.eagleswings.org or the website of the Eagles’ Wings’ product or service you use prior to the change becoming effective. In all cases, your continued use of any Services constitutes acceptance to any such changes.